With the Glasgow 7's only 3 days away, thought it was about time someone started a thread for discussion of the men's 7-a-side game.

Having won the qualifying competition in Hong Kong, Japan will essentially be making their debut as a core team in Glasgow, meanwhile it looks highly likely Spain will be playing their penultimate one.

Have to say, whilst the new qualifying system does make it easier for my team to keep our place on the circuit, and ensures there is a new team stepping up every season, the Glasgow event did have an edge last season knowing there were SWS places on the line. This year, only Portugal could realistically be caught by Spain, and even they hold a 14 point lead with 2 events to go! Still, at least it's still quite tight at the other end of the table. Pool A could be interesting on saturday..

Pools for Glasgow:

Pool ANew ZealandSouth AfricaSamoaPortugal

Pool BEnglandCanadaFranceJapan

Pool CFijiWalesArgentinaKenya

Pool DAustraliaUSAScotlandSpain

And, prompted by another thread mentioning the FIRA-AER GP 7's being staged in Manchester, I had a quick google and, to my surprise, actually found an RFU article mentioning it! :O

Looks like the SRU are struggling to the sell tickets in advance for the tail end stands for both the Saturday and the Sunday. Don't think this will be a problem for the "party" stand as I guess many people will just show up on the day and buy tickets but I think they might struggle to do this with family section.

Think the organisers have put an incredible amount of effort into promoting this as I've seen ads for this since September last year with loads of advertising online, on the radio and in the newspapers. I think they've also gone and got their pricing right as they are comparable with what it costs to go to a single Edinburgh game. So I do think it'll be a shame if there isn't a good turnout.

Guess that's part of the problem of hosting this in Glasgow...

Wish it was still here in Edinburgh but maybe somewhere else rather than Murrayfield. Would the redeveloped Easter Road be suitable as I don't know if it has ever hosted rugby?

Last edited by HMFCalltheway on Wed, 30 Apr 2014, 16:14, edited 1 time in total.

HMFCalltheway wrote:Looks like the SRU are struggling to the sell tickets in advance for the tail end stands for both the Saturday and the Sunday. Don't think this will be a problem for the "party" stand as I guess many people will just show up on the day and buy tickets but I think they might struggle to do this with family section.

Think the organisers have put an incredible amount of effort into promoting this as I've seen ads for this since September last year with loads of advertising online, on the radio and in the newspapers. I think they've also gone and got their pricing right as they are comparable with what it costs to go to a single Edinburgh game. So I do think it'll be a shame if there isn't a good turnout.

Guess that's part of the problem of hosting this in Glasgow...

Wish it was still here in Edinburgh but maybe somewhere else rather than Murrayfield. Would he redeveloped Easter Road be suitable as I don't know if it has ever hosted rugby?

HMFCalltheway wrote:Looks like the SRU are struggling to the sell tickets in advance for the tail end stands for both the Saturday and the Sunday. Don't think this will be a problem for the "party" stand as I guess many people will just show up on the day and buy tickets but I think they might struggle to do this with family section.

Think the organisers have put an incredible amount of effort into promoting this as I've seen ads for this since September last year with loads of advertising online, on the radio and in the newspapers. I think they've also gone and got their pricing right as they are comparable with what it costs to go to a single Edinburgh game. So I do think it'll be a shame if there isn't a good turnout.

Guess that's part of the problem of hosting this in Glasgow...

Wish it was still here in Edinburgh but maybe somewhere else rather than Murrayfield. Would the redeveloped Easter Road be suitable as I don't know if it has ever hosted rugby?

Just had a look at the SRU ticket site, and the Party Stand is showing as limited availability for both days (though at what level of sale it goes to limited, I don't know). And bear in mind we have had no luck with the weather since it came west. There were some scorching days when the event was first held at Murrayfield (helped by the fact it used to be latter in May), but has been pretty cold both years in Glasgow. That has certainly led to me holding off buying till I see the weather - and suspect I won't be the only one.

Perhaps also a harder sell this year, with the Commonwealth Sevens to come in July (think 3 out of 4 sessions were sold out), plus Glasgow looking good for a Pro12 semi-final at Scotstoun.

Don't think there is realistically another suitable venue in Scotland. Except perhaps Hampden? Easter Road has hosted rugby before (An Edinburgh Heineken Cup campaign), but doesn't have warm-up/festival pitches. And neither does any other venue I can think of that has a reasonable capacity. Of course, that isn't vital to host an event, but the event would be poorer without it IMO. Would also lose a chunk of the crowd!

Falkirk - no venue that's particularly suitable I don't think, and it's probably harder to get to from Glasgow than Edinburgh is.

Borders, whilst a nice idea, is practically impossible from an infrastructure PoV. Where are 16 teams + support staff + officials going to stay? The SWS book out an entire hotel for the teams to stay together - and a hotel in Edinburgh just wouldn't cut it with the IRB.

4N wrote:And Netherdale isn't suitable for WSS (though one might say the same of Scotstoun...).

- Too small - granted, it's smaller than any other event, but the fact it's not been sold out yet suggests it isn't too small. In fact, it's probably exactly the right size for the crowds we get.

- Inconvenient location - Not really! There are 2 train stations within 10 minutes walk, and 10 minutes on the train to the city centre. Some of those trains also run direct to Edinburgh. And each year there has been an excellent free bus service from the city centre and Partick Station (rail/subway/bus interchange) to the front door. All in all, it's probably easier to get to for most people than Murrayfield is!

- Running track - Is that really a big deal? As a season ticket holder at Scotstoun, I'd rather it wasn't there, but it's not bad. stands are steep, so you still get a good view from the sides, and behind the posts is on the dead ball line. Doubt it's any worse than Wellington..

- Poor surface - Fair enough. Don't remember that being an issue the first season (when no one was playing on it regularly), but by the end of last season it was pretty bad. This year isn't so bad, especially considering the weather we've had, but admittedly still isn't great. Just the main stand side that's bad (guessing lack of sunlight due to the stand), but the SRU have brought UV lamps through from Murrayfield to help.

- Lack of local interest - will be a problem with any venue in Scotland I'm afraid, certainly not one restricted to Scotstoun.

By contrast, with the leisure centre and dedicated warm-up pitch on site, Scotstoun boasts some of the best facilities for players on the circuit.

I'm not by any stretch arguing that Scotland should keep it's place on the tour - far from it in fact, I'd struggle to justify why we should keep a slot over, say, Germany - but not because Scotstoun is unsuitable.

In actual fact, whilst reading that the GP 7's are going to be played in Manchester, it did cross my mind that if(/when) we lose our SWS event, we could try and host a leg of that at the Greenyards.

CraigChalmers wrote:In actual fact, whilst reading that the GP 7's are going to be played in Manchester, it did cross my mind that if(/when) we lose our SWS event, we could try and host a leg of that at the Greenyards.

Craig, has Glasgow's rabo form done anything to help bring about a bit more interest in the rugby in Glasgow that might also help the 7s? I've always thought that if rugby could get a decent foothold in the city, Scottish rugby would have a much brighter future (obviously it's never going to beat football with Celtic and Rangers there but...) and attract more players, more popular interest and more money. Yes Edinburgh is the spiritual home but Glasgow is the biggest population centre and to not be big in your biggest population centre says to me you're cutting yourself short of your game's full potential. Sorry that this is a bit OT from 7s and more about Scottish rugby, but I'd love to see the Warriors one day become a big brand in European rugby and amongst Glaswegians, the way Leinster has become in Dublin (of course Leinster didn't have a two big, popular football clubs to contend with!).

YamahaKiwi wrote:Craig, has Glasgow's rabo form done anything to help bring about a bit more interest in the rugby in Glasgow that might also help the 7s? I've always thought that if rugby could get a decent foothold in the city, Scottish rugby would have a much brighter future (obviously it's never going to beat football with Celtic and Rangers there but...) and attract more players, more popular interest and more money. Yes Edinburgh is the spiritual home but Glasgow is the biggest population centre and to not be big in your biggest population centre says to me you're cutting yourself short of your game's full potential. Sorry that this is a bit OT from 7s and more about Scottish rugby, but I'd love to see the Warriors one day become a big brand in European rugby and amongst Glaswegians, the way Leinster has become in Dublin (of course Leinster didn't have a two big, popular football clubs to contend with!).

Hard to say for sure TBH - it's definitely raising the profile of the team here (starting to see more shirts about the city, more people seem to know who we are etc.), but whether that's people who are new to rugby, or just people who previously only appeared for internationals (of which I think there are thousands here) are starting to realise there is other rugby too I don't know.

The Leinster comparison is one that is used often here, no doubt helped by the fact they have been the team to end our title ambitions the last few seasons. Often pointed out that, before they started winning things, their crowds were very similar to ours. And whilst they don't have 2 big football (association) clubs in the city, GAA is huge, and English football has quite a big following (as do Celtic, for that matter). However, that is getting quite a bit off topic.

In terms of popularity of 7's in Glasgow, think the Commonwealth Games will probably do more than Glasgow's form - as it will no doubt attract thousands who haven't watched rugby before, but are coming for the 'event'. Much easier for a multi sport games to do that than a single rugby match, no matter how big it is!

In other news, the saturday of the London 7's has apparently sold out. So only slightly more tickets sold than Glasgow*..

Matagaro wrote:Blame the weather :-/ Though NZ is still in contention...

.

Blame the fact the IRB moved the event from late May to early may. Weather is hit and miss here at the best of times, but would be much more chance of a warm, dry day at the end of the month, or in june.

Well done to the AB7s for a marvellous win. They've been more clinical in actually winning tournements this season compared to last where they were the most consistent but questions could've been asked if they were really the best only winning 2 of 7 finals. Great efforts by Canada and Scotland. Tough intro for Japan. Can't understand why they didn't use some of the good TL finishers like Tomoki Kitagawa (Panasonic, was at HKG) and Masahiko Hikosaka (Toyota vehicles) who both have 7s experience. Far too much of the traditional Japanese white-flag type defense as well. Some of the D was truly pathetic. USA, was there even one positive? They badly missed Madison Hughes guiding the team in the playmaker role.

Matagaro, welcome to the forum. Kenyan fans would be happy to see Kenya get back to the Cup QFs. But Paul Treu hasn't got the team anywhere near the level that Mike Friday. Can't believe your union made things so hard for him that he walked. Kenya really shot itself in the foot on that one. Paul Treu is a decent coach but he never got the results with all the funding and resources he had, that he should have. if anyone askeed me which coach I'd have, I'd pick Friday in an instant. Still can't believe you guys sold yourselves short on that one...and paying Treu more anyway! Will you get the Kenyan Lomu back for 7s at any time in the future? That's also been a big hole for Kenya this season. great that he got a French pro contract. Not great he is basically lost to Kenya. Is this going to be the future for Kenya? Get a good player in the 7s and then lose him as he takes a pro-contract after a season or two?

I'm not at all surprised Canada lost in the final... but I'm disappointed by how crushed they got. They were clearly tired, and couldn't seem to do anything to slow down DJ Forbes. Every single ruck, Forbes was there, getting in the way, causing turnovers, pushing people around. He was fantastic.

CraigChalmers wrote:Things going pretty well for the hosts - undefeated thus far, and beating South Africa in the cup quarter finals (which has likely handed NZ the overall series title)

And with Scotland playing Canada in the cup semi-final, one of the two will be making their first ever final appearance later.

The first time in a long time I've been able to get properly excited about a Scotland 7's game...

great performance by the Scots you can really see Vernon and De Luca making a difference. but what about the Glasgow crowd...the empty stands remind me almost of the Moscow World Cup

If these numbers are to be believed there were apparently 12,134 people there on the final day with 23,844 across the entire weekend. That ain't terrible considering Scotstoun Stadium was expanded to something like a 14,000 capacity for the Sevens.

It is likely these numbers are right it's just probably the case many fans showed up for 1 or 2 hours before leaving so not making a day out of it (with the stadium being especially sparse early in the morning).

There's no denying though crowds can be a lot better. Hopefully the Commonwealth games Sevens will boost crowds for future World Series Events as it looks like it will have a massive turnout.

CraigChalmers wrote:Things going pretty well for the hosts - undefeated thus far, and beating South Africa in the cup quarter finals (which has likely handed NZ the overall series title)

And with Scotland playing Canada in the cup semi-final, one of the two will be making their first ever final appearance later.

The first time in a long time I've been able to get properly excited about a Scotland 7's game...

great performance by the Scots you can really see Vernon and De Luca making a difference. but what about the Glasgow crowd...the empty stands remind me almost of the Moscow World Cup

If these numbers are to be believed there were apparently 12,134 people there on the final day with 23,844 across the entire weekend. That ain't terrible considering Scotstoun Stadium was expanded to something like a 14,000 capacity for the Sevens.

It is likely these numbers are right it's just probably the case many fans showed up for 1 or 2 hours before leaving so not making a day out (with the stadium especially sparse early in the morning).

It's probably time to drop Scotland from hosting this event. London sold out for their upcoming even didn't they? Even Vegas sells more tickets than this. I'd rather have it in Barcelona or Brussels than in a minor stadium in Scotland, that isn't even sold out.

CraigChalmers wrote:Things going pretty well for the hosts - undefeated thus far, and beating South Africa in the cup quarter finals (which has likely handed NZ the overall series title)

And with Scotland playing Canada in the cup semi-final, one of the two will be making their first ever final appearance later.

The first time in a long time I've been able to get properly excited about a Scotland 7's game...

great performance by the Scots you can really see Vernon and De Luca making a difference. but what about the Glasgow crowd...the empty stands remind me almost of the Moscow World Cup

If these numbers are to be believed there were apparently 12,134 people there on the final day with 23,844 across the entire weekend. That ain't terrible considering Scotstoun Stadium was expanded to something like a 14,000 capacity for the Sevens.

It is likely these numbers are right it's just probably the case many fans showed up for 1 or 2 hours before leaving so not making a day out (with the stadium especially sparse early in the morning).

It's probably time to drop Scotland from hosting this event. London sold out for their upcoming even didn't they? Even Vegas sells more tickets than this. I'd rather have it in Barcelona or Brussels than in a minor stadium in Scotland, that isn't even sold out.